October 16, 2000

Designer Jongeward dead at 83

SEATTLE (AP) -- Jean Jongeward, an interior designer and former journalist who helped create the understated, personalized Northwest style, is dead at 83.

Photos by Eduardo Calderon Designed by Jean Jongeward, these rooms were featured in a 1995 exhibit of her work at the Bellevue Art Museum.

Jongeward died last Friday of the effects of a series of strokes.

Largely self-taught, she worked with leading architects in the region to establish a style that featured natural wood and stone, subtle colors and unpretentious furnishings punctuated with art or crafts reflecting the occupants' tastes.

"She taught us to see green or pink when others see only gray or beige," said arts administrator David Mendoza.

Architect Gordon Walker, a colleague and friend, was affectionately blunt about her weaknesses and strengths, saying she was "strong-willed" and "very difficult to work with." However, he was quick to add: "She was worth it." Walker praised her for possessing an "incredible, intuitive ability to deal with the light and color that make the Northwest special." Though she couldn't draw, "she could visualize better than any one," he said.

Jongeward had an almost obsessive interest in the nuances and variations of color, according to Walker, who said she spent four years "trying to perfect khaki."

Jongeward's portfolio included the governor's mansion in Olympia, and Canlis restaurant and the Sunset Club in Seattle, and her work was featured in design books and national publications such as Architectural Digest.

A solo retrospective exhibition of her artist-commissioned sculptures, paintings, furniture and wall and floor treatments was presented by the Bellevue Art Museum in 1995.

"I like (to cover) floors, walls and furniture in either custom-woven fabric or something that's very honest and direct, like canvas," to emphasize clients' tastes and interests, she once said.

A native of Marshall, Minn., Jongeward earned a bachelor's degree in journalism at the University of North Dakota and wrote art and theater reviews for a daily newspaper before coming to Seattle as an Army wife during World War II.

She said she quickly fell in love with "this soft green place, like something in a poem."

Working at Frederick & Nelson's furniture department, she helped people coordinate furniture, carpets and fabrics. She later assisted architect Roland Terry. Her career blossomed in the 1960s when she opened an office in Pioneer Square, downstairs from the offices of architects Ralph Anderson, Jim Olson and Gordon Walker.

She is survived by a son, Jeffrey Jongeward of Seattle. Services are at 2:30 p.m. Oct. 23 at University Unitarian Church.